China's Romeo gets his comeuppance after wooing at least 17 ‘Juliets’ at the same time

A young Romeo who dated at least 17 Juliets at once - including fathering a child with one of them - got his comeuppance after a car accident when doctors contacted his "relatives" - and all his girlfriends turned up at the same time.

The man from Changsha, in Hunan province, identified only by his surname, Yuan was taken to hospital on March 24 with injuries not believed to be life threatening.

His girlfriends - and hospital staff - were stunned to discover the truth when they arrived en masse to find they were going out with the same man, Changsha newspaper Xiaoxiang Chen Bao reported on Friday.

One of the girlfriends, who called herself Xiao Li, said: "I've been with him for a year and a half. [After hearing he'd been in an accident] I cried so hard I didn't have any tears left.

"I was really worried when I heard that he was in hospital. But when I started seeing more and more beautiful girls show up, I couldn't cry any more."

Xiao said she had set up an online chat group made up of 17 of Yuan's partners. She said she had learned that some of Yuan's other girlfriends had given him money each month - sometimes large sums - with one woman providing him with financial support for nine years.